1. Field of the Invention
This is a Divisional of application Ser. No. 11/519,942, filed Sep. 13, 2006. This application claims priority to Japanese patent application serial number 2005-268614, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to cutting devices, and in particular to table saws having a table for placing workpieces thereon and a saw blade partially protruding upward from the upper surface of the table.
2. Description of the Related Art
Table saws have a table for placing workpieces thereon and a circular saw blade that partially protrudes upward from the upper surface of the table, so that workpieces may be cut by moving workpieces along the upper surface of the table toward the saw blade in a direction parallel to the surface of the saw blade. It has been known to provide a guard device in order to prevent potential interference of the other articles with the upper portion of the saw blade protruding from the table surface. The known guard device has a guard plate that is configured to cover the saw blade primarily from right and left sides and the upper side. The guard device is configured such that the guard plate is moved upward or opened by the workpiece as the workpiece moves toward the saw blade. Typically, the guard plate is vertically pivotally mounted to a splitter.
For the convenience of change of the saw blade, there has been proposed to configure the guard device such that the guard plate can not only vertically pivot but also can be completely removed. Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 646901, U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,624 and EP 1491.304 A2 teach known guard devices.
In general, a saw blade of the table saw rotates in such a direction that the saw blade moves downward on the side of the position of the workpiece before it is cut (hereinafter called “front side with respect to cutting direction”), while the saw blade moves upward on the side of the position of the workpiece after it has been cut (hereinafter called “rear side with respect to cutting direction”). Therefore, if the cut surfaces of the workpiece contact the rear side of the rotating saw blade immediately after the workpiece has been cut, the workpiece may be forced upward by the rotating saw blade in some occasion. This phenomenon is called “kickback phenomenon.” When this phenomenon occurs, it is difficult to smoothly perform the cutting operation. Therefore, there has been proposed to position a splitter (also called “riving knife”) having substantially the same thickness as the saw blade on the rear side of the saw blade and within the same plane as the saw blade. The splitter may enter the cut of the workpiece and maintain the cut width of the workpiece in order to avoid contact of the rotating saw blade with the cut surfaces. In addition, in order to prevent the potential kickback phenomenon, there has been proposed to provide kickback preventing claw members on opposite sides of the splitter within a region where the kickback preventing claw members may not interfere with the movement of the workpiece in the cutting direction. Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 3-42602 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,624 teach known kickback preventing claw members.
Also there has been proposed to provide a splitter and kickback preventing claw members for preventing the kickback phenomenon in addition to a guard device for preventing interference of other articles with the saw blade. In this structure, a guard plate of the guard device and kickback preventing claw members are respectively vertically pivotally supported on the upper portion of the splitter.
However, for example, in the case of the cutting operation of a decorative laminated sheet, it would be preferable that the kickback preventing claw members will not contact the sheet during the cutting operation. Therefore, by configuring the kickback preventing claw members to be able to be removed from the splitter, the operability for this kind of cutting operation can be improved. In addition, the operation for changing the saw blade can be conveniently performed if the kickback preventing claw members are removed from the splitter in order to keep the kickback preventing claw members as far away from the saw blade as possible.
In this structure, the guard plate of the guard device and each of the kickback preventing claw members are individually supported on the splitter. In this configuration, a problem occurs such that the mounting and removing operations of the guard plate and the kickback preventing claw members are very difficult when such operations are necessary for changing the saw blade.